Modern construction techniques, particularly those commonly employed in high rise apartment and office building construction, require that safety barriers or guard rails be erected around the perimeter of all uncompleted floors (i.e. along the drop-off edges of concrete floor slabs) for two reasons: Firstly, personal safety requires the erection of at least a single rail at about waist height around the exterior of such uncompleted floors. Secondly, it is also necessary that a retaining kick board be erected at floor level so as to prevent the accidental dislodgement of articles which would otherwise cause a substantial safety hazard to workmen on the floors below and around the construction site. In certain cases, the provision of a weather barrier, such as a plastic tarpaulin or the like, may be necessary so as to protect the site under construction as well as workmen from inclement weather conditions.
The general practice in the erection of such safety barriers involves the use of lengths of lumber stock such as long boards of the 2″×4″ variety (commonly referred to as “two-by-fours”). Such boards are cut to length and then nailed together in varying patterns in order to provide the desired guard railings. After such railings have served their purpose they are knocked down, the longer boards typically reserved for future use in the piecing together of future guard railings. The shorter boards are not always reusable. Furthermore, the longer lengths of lumber frequently become damaged by splitting or otherwise due to the application thereto of repeated impact blows and different nail placements. While such makeshift such guard railings meet safety requirements, they require more than one person and a fair amount of time to construct and often result in the destruction of the materials used when they are disassembled after completion of work at a construction site. Obviously, the additional labour and cost of materials used will add to the expense of the job. Many such railings also fail to pass the rigidity requirements of safety inspectors.
As a result, various structures have been proposed to aid in the construction of temporary safety barriers which prevent workmen from accidental falls and which meet strict safety guidelines. To a large extent, however, most of the proposed structures are impractical, expensive and too complicated to use. Furthermore, structures that are too complicated to use will not be used efficiently and/or properly by workmen at a construction site, thereby posing a safety risk.
Consequently, a need exists for a portable and simple guard rail system which is effective in preventing accidental falls, meets safety guidelines and which can be assembled and disassembled in an efficient manner.